Global satellite navigation fulfills many pervasive needs. Initially a service for military and general aviation, the use of satellite navigation systems continues to expand into many commercial and consumer products for applications ranging from casual applications to emergency services. The preponderance of GNSS is enabled by GPS that is managed by the United States Air Force. GPS is now or may soon be joined by several additional GNSS systems including: Glonass (Russia), Galileo (European Space Agency), BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (China), and QZSS (Japan).
Many electronic devices, including mobile computing devices (e.g., tablets, phones, laptops, etc.), have been developed that leverage GNSS capabilities to facilitate location-based services and/or emergency caller location services in response to government requirements. Furthermore, small cell radio access nodes currently provide, or will in the future provide, necessary infrastructure for wireless services. For instance, it has been contemplated that fifth-generation mobile networks (i.e., 5G networks) will utilize small cells to provide continuous or near continuous 5G coverage, especially in urban areas. Such small cells are envisioned to provide more efficient provisioning of spectrum to users of mobile computing devices and enable data reception in virtually all environments. Accurately determining the location of such small cells will become critical to the operation thereof. As such, it is contemplated that small cells will incorporate GNSS technologies for use in locating the small cells in connection with provision of wireless services such as data communication, voice communication, and the like.
Regardless of the specific context in which GNSS services are utilized, it may be that a receiver may have difficulty in acquiring sufficient positioning system signals to determine a location of the receiver. A number of conditions may exist that present such difficulty. Such conditions may limit the number of signals that may be acquired and/or the strength of such signals. For instance, often times a receiver may be located within (i.e., imbedded within) a building. Such receivers that are imbedded within a building may experience high attenuation of signals as signals must pass through the building materials surrounding the receiver. Furthermore, such in-building or imbedded receivers may be located in highly urbanized areas. In such contexts, in addition to high attenuation of positioning system signals, the signals may also experience multipath propagation of signals and/or experience reflection of signals, among other conditions in the urban environment that make signal acquisition difficult.
Moreover, as the use of positioning system receivers in computing devices continues to become more pervasive, a number of difficulties are presented in relation to the computational capacity of such receivers. For instance, traditional approaches to overcoming difficulties in signal acquisition have included use of so-called “high sensitivity” receivers. Such receivers typically utilize powerful processing to assist in acquiring signals that are difficult to discern. Further still, introduction of new positioning system signals with higher encoded data rates (e.g., chip rates or the like) may increase the processing complexity required of receivers to determine a location of a receiver. Accordingly, such high precision receivers may be impractical or infeasible for in certain contexts, such as small cell receivers or mobile devices where computing capacity may be limited due to size, price, and/or energy consumption constraints. In turn, receipt of positioning system signals in an efficient manner that allows for acquisition of difficult signals continues to be a pervasive need.